Frugal Fridays - Frugal Arts & Crafts

You may have noticed I have really gotten into making artist trading cards recently. I find it very relaxing and since they are so small, I can whip up a few in very little time.

As with most art or crafting, supplies can get pricey. Fortunately, I already had many art supplies.

ATCs (artist trading cards) are 2.5 x 3.5 inches in size. They also have to be sturdy, so plain paper won't cut it. You can purchase ATC blanks, pre-cut cardboard at artist and craft stores.

However, I have found a cheaper option... food boxes. Cereal, crackers, pop boxes etc... It takes a bit of time and effort to measure them out and cut them up, but not that much.

As I have played around with the ATCs I have also found other household supplies or garbage that I can use in my art, such as:

• plastic wrap,
• any cardboard box

• tin foil,
  
• the scrap tissue paper from sewing patterns,

• images and patterns from magazines,
• tags from clothing,

• plastic from packaging,
• candy wrappers

• paper towel,
• patterned paper napkins,

• newsprint
• pages from old books
  

the list is endless.

I now really look at things before I throw them away, always wondering if I can make something out of it.

I am only doing this for myself, but I imagine this would be great for people with little ones that make several masterpieces every day - no more running out of paper!

Here are some artwork I have uses recycled items on.

This one uses a wrapper from a Quality
Street chocolate from Christmas time.

This one uses plastic wrap

The words on this one were printed
on scraps from a sewing pattern

This is a page from an old book with a coffee stain

This collage uses many recycled items, a bit of twine,
a clothing tag ripped up, sewing pattern paper,
old music sheets, brown paper bag and old books

And I made it all on a piece of a coke case

This is the beginning of an ATC made
using a paper napkin and ink stamps

For even more great frugal tips, head over to Life As Mom!

Frugal Friday - Leftovers

Being organized helps me to be frugal.

Leftovers - they used to get tossed into the fridge and usually forgotten about and then thrown out once discovered (and growing something).

Lately, I have been freezing all my leftovers right away and then when I am looking for something for lunch, I remember them, take something out of the freezer and reheat.

I enjoyed a nice curry yesterday instead of just a cold sandwich. I am not wasting food any more and I have lunches when needed.

For more great frugal tips, pop over to Life As Mom.

Frugal Fridays - Easy Cheap Thermos Lunch

At my son's school they have a program called Lunch Lady - it is not run by the school, it is a private company. They provide hot lunches to students for about $3.75 per meal. They offer a menu of about 10 items and deliver 3 days per week.

We ordered this program one day per week last year and usually all my son would order was pancakes or Mac & cheese.

This year I decided it was too much to pay for the small portion he was given.

My son could eat mac & cheese every day of a year and not get sick of it and he isn't picky with the kind either, he likes Kraft dinner equally as well as homemade with real cheese.

So I decided every other week, to make a box of KD (bought on sale for 50 cents a box) with a couple hot dogs cut up and thrown in. This will make 4 servings for him, he doesn't mind eating it 4 days in a row. His thermos isn't huge and it is enough for him with his other snacks.

When heating it up in the morning I also throw in some real grated cheese for extra gooyness.

He gets a hot lunch, he loves it and it doesn't cost me $3.75 per day.

For more great frugal ideas, go Life As Mom.

Frugal Friday - Next Frugal Steps

We already do several things that are frugal, such as:

• Rarely eat out
• Cook from scratch
• Keep lights off when not needed
• Keep heat down, wear sweaters
• Keep showers short
• Use less than recommended amounts of shampoo & laundry soap
• Alway price check and buy generic
• Wash everything in cold
  

I have to come up with some new frugal things to do as well.
I have been thinking of doing the following:

• Having more meatless meals (DH will fight me on this one a bit)
• Bake bread more often. I have a bread machine so it isn't difficult. The no name bread is up to $2.49 a loaf now.
• Make more cloth napkins.
• Make matching placemats instead of buying new (using fabric I already have).
• Start using rags more instead of papertowels for spills and such.
• Figure out how to create a garden bed that the dogs can't get into (inexpensively) and plan what to plant (herbs, tomatoes...)
• Find a local farmers market (in a couple months once they open) and compare prices to grocery store.

In the past couple of weeks we have stocked up on several sales.
We bought a lot of the following:

• chicken leg 1/4s
• lean ground beef
• pasta - all shapes and sizes
• pasta sauce - several flavors
• Shrimp - frozen raw
• Kraft Dinner (reg price is $1.59...we got them for 12/$5.99)
• Toilet paper
• Butter (I've been doing a lot of baking and that uses butter faster than we normally do)
• Cereal - a few different kinds that we all like.

I am planning on doing more baking/cooking and freezing too.
Some of what I have planned:

• Cheeseburger hot pockets
• Whole wheat bread
• Cinnamon rolls
• Brownies
• Italian bread

What are you doing to save a buck, stretch your dollar or make do?

For more frugal hints & tips, go to Life as Mom

Frugal Friday - Easy Frugal Meals

You know those nights when you are too tired to cook and all you want to do is pick up the phone and order pizza?

But you know you really can't afford to, so what the heck are you gonna make?

Maybe we should all just eat a bowl of cereal (again!).

We here are a few easy inexpensive meals that either don't take a lot of time to make, or little prep time.

Note: I never claimed them to be all that nutritious or low fat - add a side salad to make it healthier :)

• Mac & cheese and chili - any ole boxed mac & cheese and a tin of chili mixed in.

• Chili dogs or chili potatoes - hot dogs or baked spuds topped with chili
  

• Hamburger rice - browned ground beef, raw rice, water, corn, onions, seasonings and beef bouillon - simmer until rice is fully cooked
  

• Sausage rice - same as above but with sausage instead of ground beef and a cup of salsa added
  

• Spaghetti with meat sauce- any cooked pasta actually, tin or jar pasta sauce, cooked diced/crumbled sausage or ground beef
  

• Soup and grilled cheese

• Mushroom macaroni - cream of mushroom soup, cooked pasta, any cooked meat (chicken, ground beef, sausage
  

For more frugal Friday ideas, head to Biblical Womanhood

Frugal Friday - Making Do With What we Have On Hand

I have been out of work for awhile now as many of you know. I am beginning to feel the pinch.

I have done a freezer and pantry inventory and know what I have on hand and plan to make up a meal plan to use up what we have, which is really a fair amount.

I have noticed though, when I get the weekly grocery flyers, there are many sale items I want to go out and grab. And I have also noticed, if I go to Walmart or any store for that matter, I feel like I want to just buy something, not necessarily something expensive, but also not necessarily something I really need.

But no more. I have decided to make do.

Dinner tonight will be made with what I have on hand. I won't get my DH to stop on the way home from work to pick up that one item I need (and he always buys more than that one thing!). If we end up eating odd meals, so be it.

The other day I made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for my son's lunches. I don't usually bake, but it really didn't take that long. He loved them! (And since they are all gone, I need to make more...I have the ingredients so why not).

Sometimes we just fall back on the habit of buying stuff for the sake of buying, or getting a good deal when we already have 3 of that item at home waiting to be used.

We grocery shop on the weekends - from now on there will be no mid-week trips to buy something, if I forget to get it on the weekend, we will do without it.

I am attempting to keep the groceries to under $70 each week and only buying what we really need (produce, milk etc...).

I'll let you know how it goes.

For more Frugal Friday inspiration, go to Biblical Womanhood.

Frugal Friday - Eating Out Cheaper

We like to eat out once in awhile. We also really like the Mandarin restaurants - I'm not sure if they are in the U.S., but they are a Chinese buffet restaurant.

The buffet is more expensive on Fridays and the weekend than during the week - $6 more, but then they have extra special stuff on the weekends like crab legs etc...

We usually only get the chance to go on the weekends, even though weekdays would be cheaper.

So what we do instead, is to go for lunch on the weekends instead of dinner. Their lunch buffet is almost identical to the dinner buffet but is $7 cheaper. We have a nice leisurely lunch and usually end up skipping dinner.

We eat the same amount of food as we would if we went for dinner but save $7 each.

Makes sense to me!

For more great frugal tips, stop by Biblical Womanhood.

Frugal Friday - Back on the Frugal Bandwagon

Well I found out yesterday that my 6 month work contract (of which I have completed only 6 weeks) will end in 2 more weeks due to lack of work. I have applied to a few other positions, but have nothing solid yet.

So while I relaxed a little while the money was coming in, I have to once again tighten the belt and pay attention to every penny until I get that next job.

Frugal things I plan to do:

• Take an inventory of our two freezers and our pantry. I am sure we can do a mini grocery exile for everything but fresh produce and milk.

• I will start baking bread again.

• I will get back to planning our meals (fell out of that habit) and start making them smaller too - I no longer need the leftovers to take for lunch and we ended up with too much waste.

• I will finally get around to selling a few things I have, on Kijiji.

• I will also go on a fabric diet - I have more that enough now and will sew most of it up before buying more.

• I will bake more to have snacks on hand for kiddo.

• I don't drive, so I won't go out shopping.

I'll pinch those pennies while I have to.

For more frugal tips, stop by Biblical Womanhood.

Frugal Friday - Frugal Baby Steps

Since I am a consultant and sometimes go months without working, I have had to become frugal in many areas, but there are still many other areas that I could work on being more frugal.

Some of the frugal things I currently do:

• Always wash clothes in cold water
• Use cloth napkins
• Make sure lights are turned off when not needed
• Keep the heat/AC down
• Buy on sale as much as possible
• Buy most of my fabric for sewing from thrift stores
• Only run the dishwasher/washing machine when full
• Write posts for PayPerPost to make money for eBay fabric purchases
  

Things I need to start doing:

• Menu planning and cooking ahead more to avoid ordering in
• Stop buying my morning coffee and bagel - I can easily make them at work
• Use less meat in recipes and have meatless meals more often ( I am ok with this - I have to convince DH :))
• Bake more to avoid buying snacks for DS
• Do freezer/pantry inventories more often to use up what we have
  

I have to take baby steps and work on slowly incorporating these habits into my life. Ever little step helps right! :)

For more fantastic frugal tips, stop by Biblical Womanhood.

Frugal Fridays - Ignore New Income

I am returning to work on Monday after being off for almost 11 months. I do contract work and so do not work at a permanent job. I took the summer and fall off to move and renovate my home and then started looking for work in January. It has been a slow year so far.

So ...what do I mean by ignore new income? I had put money aside to take the time off - it has started to get tight and I tighten my belt accordingly. I have been making do without any major sacrifices.

This new job only pays once a month at the end of the month, so I really won't even have an income until next month - but what I plan to do, is to continue as I have been doing. I am going to keep my belt tight. I am going to continue to make do.

I have a credit card to pay off and I have to stash away money for next year's income taxes, plus I want to build up my savings that I have nearly depleted, so I am going to transfer all the money but what I need for bills, into separate accounts. Out of sight - out of mind.

You can do the same with any raises you incur during the year - you are not used to having it, so you won't miss it.

For more great frugal ideas, stop by Biblical Womanhood.

Frugal Fridays - Revisit what you already have

I have really been on a sewing kick lately. I have been making totes galore.
I have also been reading several sewing blogs about finding great fabric at amazing prices at thrift stores.

I would really like to go to the thrift store and find more luscious fabric but in truth, I really don't have that money to spend, even at the thrift store.

So what did I do? Well I started digging into the stash of fabric I already have - and to my surprise I found a lot that I had forgotten about. Pieces that will work wonderfully with what I have in mind.

I started organizing my fabric into co-ordinated project piles. I really do have enough fabric. I would love to find some great deals at the thrift store - but that can wait - I have enough for now.

Sometimes the "Wants" can be very loud - you just have to stuff a piece of fabric in their mouths :)

Frugal Fridays - Getting the last drop!

It has been mentioned several times before but I think it bares repeating.

When your body lotion is getting low - cut the bottle open and you will be surprised to find at least a few more applications inside. I do this with my foundation as well - there was SO much left inside that I couldn't get out before cutting.

After squeezing out the last dregs of toothpaste, I cut the tube open and find another brushing's worth.

Turn your shampoo & conditioner bottles upside down to get the last drops (after you have added a touch of water!)

Add a tablespoon of water to the last of the salad dressing, steak sauce, BBQ sauce bottle - it will be a little thinner than normal but still tasty.

For more easy frugal ideas - head over to Biblical Womanhood!

Frugal Fridays - Thrift stores

I LOVE thrift stores!

I mostly buy fabric at thrift stores. I find brand new fabric. I have gotten some really good deals.

Check out my finds here, here, here and here!

This quilt is made completely from fabric I got at value Village. Total cost of fabric is approx. $13.

When my son was younger I was able to get him clothing in good condition - but now that he is older, not so much.

My sister buys most of her wardrobe at thrift stores. She often finds item with tags still attached for only a few dollars. She is able to update her wardrobe each fall and spring due to the savings.

Even if we don't find a good deal at a thrift store, we always have fun checking out all the stuff and saying "wow didn't Mom have one of those?" or "I remember that!"

It's also a great place to buy books.

So if you haven't recently, go check out your local thrift store! :)

For more frugal ideas, go to Biblical Womanhood.

Frugal Friday - Using up samples

You know all those samples you receive, some in magazines, some you request online, some you get in the newspaper? Shampoo, conditioner, lotions....

What do you do with them?

Do you have them piling up in a drawer somewhere?

Do you, God forbid, throw them out?!

Here are a couple ideas:

• I used to collect them and then use them as stocking stuffers for my sister and girlfriends.

• I have collected a huge amount, added them to some store bought small bottles of lotion etc and placed into a nice basket for an inexpensive gift for a teacher or co-worker.

• I have actually used them myself, when I've run out of shampoo. I continued to use them all up - I didn't have to buy shampoo, conditioner or lotion for at least a month or so.

Just a reminder that just because they are small - don't forget about them!

For more Frugal tips - surf over to Biblical Womanhood.

Frugal Friday - Cheap Dinners

Now we don't do this too often but I think cheap and not-all-that-healthy meals are ok once in awhile.

For instance - I wasn't feeling well this morning, slept in and then forgot to get something out of the freezer for dinner. Oh no what will we have?

Well you know what? Some times we really like to have cereal for dinner, or eggs and toast, or soup & grilled cheese. Some times we each have something different too.

Tonight we are going to have chili dogs - hot dogs, tin chili, grated cheese and a bun. Definitely not the healthiest of meals but it does in a pinch and it also feels like a treat as we don't eat hot dogs all that often.

It is all stuff we have on hand and it is quick and easy.

For more great frugal ideas, pop over to Biblical Womanhood.

Frugal Friday - Little things add up

My tips today will not save you big bucks but will over the long haul, save pennies and the environment.

I am sure you are familiar with most if not all of them.

A few things I do (that my DH thinks I am nuts for doing :))

• I save the inserts from magazines and use them as bookmarks for the books I am reading - I usually have at least 4 different books I am reading at any one time and can never seem to find my actual book marks. Oh I also use paint chips as bookmarks :)

• I save old desk flip calendar (you know the ones with saying for each day and you just rip them off or flip them back?) sheets to use as note pads - I am still working on an old Dr Phil one from 2004 :) They are ruled on the back and make great note pads.

• I save my samples of shampoo and the like to add to stockings at Christmas time.

• I reuse bread bags for homemade bread.

• I always use less laundry soap, dishwasher soap then the directions call for - so far so good.

• I add water to the dish soap once there is room in the bottle. I have done this with shampoo before too with varying results - I think it depends on the quality of the shampoo.

• I don't reuse plastic containers from sour cream and the like but I do make sure they get put in the recycling bin.

• I wear my clothes more than once (as long as they are clean and don't smell) - longer life for the clothes and less laundry. I have to work on this with my son - he is in the habit of tossing everything into the dirty hamper once he takes it off, even if he only had it one for a couple hours.

• I hang all dress clothes (mine & DH's) up as soon as soon as they come out of the dryer. I never iron if I can help it :) Again it saves wear and tear on the clothes and the life of the iron I guess - plus I am just lazy.

• I only wash full loads of laundry now- I used to just toss in whatever I need to wear that day and would end up doing several more loads than necessary. Now I have to work on my FIL who washes only 2 shirts and 2 pair of pants on HOT per load.

• I save drips and dregs - only 2 tbsps left of pizza sauce? Into a small ziptop bag and into the freezer - do that enough times and you have enough for an entire pizza. Same goes for bits of cheese or even leftovere meat - they all end up on a pizza one day.

That's all I can think of right now - hope at least one of them helps someone - have a lovely frugal day!

Fabulous frugal fabric finds!

Now say that five times fast!

This is the bounty from my trip to Walmart today.

This fabric is pretty heavy - would make good cushion covers - $1.75 for 0.9 metres.

This fabric is light and stretchy - I am thinking to make a skirt out of it - $1.87 for 1.9 metres.

This fabric is medium weight - again good for pillows or even to incorporate into crazy quilts - $1.75 for 0.9 metres.

Light-weight jacquard - to include in a cream-coloured crazy quilt project I will be starting soon - $1.76 for 2 metres (but it is only 15 in wide)

Cotton - will use for quilts - $5.96 for 2 metres.

This photo doesn't do the colour justice - it is a pale lemon yellow - see the scalloped edge on the left? Only 0.97 a metre - I bought one metre - will include in my cream-theme crazy quilt - I know it is not cream but I think it will work and I just love it!

Fabric with embroidery - for cream crazy quilt project - $3.30 for 1.7 metres - only about 16 in wide.

Another small piece - again for cream crazy quilt - $0.18 for 0.4 metres.

A kind of blah piecec compared to the others - plain light beige- for the cream crazy quilt - $0.30 for 0.3 of a metre.

Light weight jacquard-like (?) cream fabric - cream crazy quilt - $1.36 for 0.7 of a metre.

I also bought myself a new iron - the one I have is about 20 yrs old - it works fine but does not have an auto shut-off - I forgot it on last week for a few hours - no damage done - but if I keep doing things like that I will burn the house down - so I got one with auto shut-off - a Black & Decker one for $27 - I will freecycle my old one as it is still good.

Ok off to get started!

Frugal Friday - Five Frugal Things

This is my first time participating in Frugal Friday's over at Biblical Womanhood. Pop over for more great tips!

This is my first Frugal Friday tip of the New year I am going to post five frugal things I will start/continue to do this year.

• Keep heat to 18C during the day in the winter - I have been wearing slippers, sweaters and occasionally a knit hat to stay warm. So far so good. In the summer we will not set the AC lower than 22C (let's hope DH can handle that LOL)

• Keep track of what we have in the fridge/pantry/freezer and only buy what we really need - I used to throw away far too many things that spoiled. Plan meals around what we do have.

• Cook from scratch most days - have a leftover night to use stuff up. There are times when all we really feel like is a bowl of cereal anyway - why cook if we don't feel like eating.
  

• Don't buy any new clothes unless I get down a size - I really don't need anything anyway.

• Really think about things before I buy them - do I really need this? Can it wait? Can I do without?

Right now my goal is not to save money but to stretch what I currently have as far as possible - I am looking for work but so far, there isn't much in my line of work right now - so I have to pinch pennies until I have an income again.